The Seven Day-a-Week Church

Several years ago Lyle Schaller published a book by the above title. In it he described the emerging (then) church which was moving from just a Sunday and Wednesday program targeting only their members to the a church that provided desired and needed ministries to members and non-members six or seven days a week.

At the time of reading that book I was the pastor of a small congregation in northern Fulton County, GA.  Our only weekday ministry was a 2-day a week Mother's  Morning Out with 13 children. We exploited the only room available and which could be licensed and in a few weeks had 39 children enrolled, 13 per day. 26 came two days a week and 13 came one day a week.  Since these children left about 2pm, we next added an After School Program targeting "latch-key kids" from mostly single parent homes generally living in the new apartment complexes in the area. That ministry started with about 30 kids.

Since we had no money, both of these programs had to be self funding from tuition and fees to cover transportation costs, utilities, materials, etc. and the largest item: staff.  They did and provided a cash flow to the church that would prove critical over time.  So in about 9 months we moved from serving 13 children, mostly member's kids, to about 70 kids or families, most of whom were non-members. Many of these children are now leaders in their churches and some are missionaries and pastors.  Several families began to attend church for the first time in their lives through our intentional outreach to them through these ministries.

Over the next several years we added multiple ministries targeting families with children and other target groups and eventually had to purchase a huge event scheduling software program from the hospitality industry just to keep up with where the thousands of persons were meeting each week on our campus.  This was after we maximized the only room we had.

To expand on Dr. Schaller, we actually became a 7 Day-a-Week Church beyond what he described in that good book, programming about 18 hours a day and with janitorial services and kitchen services, operating 24 hours a day/7 days a week.

The ministries fell into three categories as we defined them:
1. Mission.  These were ministries that had to be funded by the congregation or the community since the persons being served in mission (Ken Callahan) were not able to fund the cost.  These included the first Aides Ministry outside the Perimeter of Atlanta in the middle 1980's, The Beacon of Hope Women's Center, Habitat for Humanity, North Fulton Community Charities, Hispanic Ministry, etc.
2. Self Funding, or Fee Based Ministries.  These were ministries that paid the full operational cost out of fees paid by those served in the ministry.The Mother's Morning Out, After School Program, Mount Pisgah Christian School, The Summit Counseling Center, Recreation Ministry, etc, all paid their own way (most of the time -  an occasional miscalculation on or part would sometimes create an negative cash flow that had to later be rectified).
3. Church Ministries.  These ministries were paid for out of the offering and included the traditional aspects of church life and budget.  They served members and constituents who called the church home.  Worship, Sunday School, Youth Ministry, Children's Ministry, AA, Scouts, Music Ministry, Prayer Ministry, Discipleship Ministries, etc. all received funding from the church budget.  Money placed in the offering plate paid for these ministries.

Years ago Dr. Ken Callahan said in my presence at Mount Pisgah, "The church grows directly proportional to the number of people to whom it is in ministry who will never likely join that church." 


That proved true,  especially through our development of the areas 1 and 2 above. This was one of the basic principles that drove our focus and resulted in a congregation growing from 75 in worship to over 3000 in worship in 17 years. I hope to discuss these three areas of ministry more in the future.  Write me with questions or comments or to just dialogue.